Douglas Rushkoff

I think that, in many ways, the further you look back in time, the clearer things become. Sort of "Hindsight is 20/20 multiplied by time to the power of infinity." Basically, the idea holds that as we become more intelligent and more evolved, we can look back and point at things with our evolved sensibilities and say, "That was good and that wasn't." It doesn't work for everything and there is a cultural bias involved, but when it comes to artists, philosophers, scientists, and social leaders, the proof is in their results. Not only have their ideas stood the test of time, we have seen their influences and analyzed them to death. Consequently, while it can be fairly easily to look back on anything before the 20th century with an objective gaze, everything after that becomes a lot murkier. Add to this the fact that our contemporary issues are more closely and causally linked to the events, people, and culture of the past 100 years, it can be especially difficult to gain enough emotional and intellectual distance to even begin to look at it objectively.

But when we look to history for wisdom and inspiration, the language is awkward and unnecessarily verbose by our modern standards of language economy (obviously not my standards) and the state of the world was so extremely different that we have to question its value in the modern age. John Locke, for example, held that nothing was unnatural; that man, being a natural creation, was in capable of doing or thinking anything unnatural. That's all well, good, and logical, but since Locke died in 1704, he never saw a horseless carriage, much less nuclear bombs, space shuttles, the internet, and Michael Jackson.

For those in Generation X, heroes, great men and women, are confined to the history books. Einstein is dead. John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and John Lennon were all killed. We were left with Reagan and Clinton... and that footnote president in-between. Bush the Lesser just about strangled our last remaining hope for the human race, but I like to think that we will take our horror from the last eight years and turn it into something good. I'm not pinning all of my hopes on Obama, like some people are. He is in a position to do a lot of good, but what we really need are people to bring about change for themselves with their own vision and their own voice.

All of this is to say that it is rare for me to find many contemporary voices which speak with intelligence, wisdom, clarity, and (on top of all of that) actually try to push forward with something they believe in. For me, Douglas Rushkoff is one of those voices. I originally discovered Rushkoff watching a DVD called Disinformation, a controversial television show which never aired. Disinformation has a policy of reporting everything that you don't hear from the mainstream. Some of it is just fucking nutty as all get out, but a lot of it is just common sense. Some of the contributors include Howard Zinn, Howard Bloom, Arianna Huffington, Peter Breggin, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, and Douglas Rushkoff.

In the DVD's special features, Rushkoff was at the Disinformation Convention addressing the counterculture audience with a mixture of self-identification and a healthy dose of humble skepticism. In a room full of angry countercultural types, he spoke about finding the humanity in others. I was stunned and knew I'd have to find out more about this guy.

I picked up his book, Media Virus, about how subversive messages are used in pop culture, followed by his brilliant novel Ecstasy Club (currently out of print, but available used on Amazon) and the equally brilliant Exit Strategy. He has written two comic books: Club Zero G and Testament. He is a frequent contributor to NPR and a documentarian for PBS. In his day job, he is a professor of media theory at NYU.

Check out these videos when you have some time to spare. Rushkoff brilliantly analyzes the destructive effect of living in a world consumed by advertizing and led by greed. Check out the PBS documentaries: The Pursaders and Merchants of Cool here.